1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image forming apparatus, or in particular to an image forming apparatus capable of printing document data by chapter, and a control method and a program product for the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various conventional techniques for handling document data have been disclosed.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-162520, in particular, discloses a technique for managing document data by chapter. This reference further discloses a technique for printing the document data by chapter by manually inputting the chapter number of a document into a dialog box for print setting.
The conventional technique disclosed in this reference, though advantageous in that the printing range of the document data can be designated by chapter, sometimes causes an inconvenience on the part of the user in designation of the printing range. Specifically, the user in print designation is required to remember a particular chapter containing the desired portion of the document data to be printed. Otherwise, the user is required to display a thumbnail image of the document data and confirm a particular chapter containing the desired portion to designate the chapter to be printed. Especially, in the case where the document data is printed in an ordinary image forming apparatus such as MFP (multifunction peripherals) having mounted thereon a display unit small in screen size and low in resolution, a display unit having a comparatively high resolution is required to be mounted on the image forming apparatus for the sole purpose of displaying the thumbnail image. In other words, the image forming apparatus having the function to designate the printing range of the document data by chapter poses the problem of an increased product cost.
There thus exists a need to eliminate the inconvenience on the part of the user in designating the printing range without increasing the cost of the image forming apparatus for printing the document data.